The Peterson Principle 1/2/12

The Bowl games continue through out this Holiday season. There have been some good (The Alamo Bowl) and some bad (The Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl.) Whatever happened to the Astro Bluebonnet Bowl?”

They didn’t play defense in the Alamo Bowl but I’ll take a 67-56 game over a 7-3 game any day. You got to love all the offense. I was having Arena Football Flashbacks.

Robert Griffin III, the Heisman Trophy Winner who quarterbacked Baylor to that big win over Washington in the Alamo Bowl win, announced he would be making himself available for the NFL Draft. Not a bad decision especially since Matt Barkley decided to stay in school.

Washington also made a decision after the Alamo Bowl. The Huskies fired Defensive Coordinator Nick Holt. I guess that’s to be expected after his defense gave up 777 yards and 67 points in one game. Holt was expected to revitalize the Washington defense and had the salary to prove it. He was given a three year $2.1 million dollar contract in 2009 when he came over with Steve Sarkisian. That’s a lot of money for an assistant and after that performance it was hard to for Washington to swallow. However the Huskies will have to swallow 650,000 dollars of Holt’s contract that was previously extended through 2012.

At least Jim Mora Jr. knows what his Bruins have to work on after watching the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl from AD Dan Guerrero’s box. UCLA couldn’t run, pass, catch, block or tackle. Other than that the Bruins looked pretty good. They did accomplish something this season that no other college team in history has even done. They were the first bowl eligible team ever to lose eight games. Congratulations.

Anybody know which way Ellis McCarthy is leaning?

The Rose Bowl is always worth watching but with Oregon and Wisconsin averaging over 44 points per game it’s a can’t miss.

LSU- Alabama on January 9 in the BCS Championship? I think I might have some laundry to do.

It was a great decision to have no college football on New Year’s Day. This allowed the NFL to have the spotlight all to itself for week 17. And with 13 of the 16 games having playoff or draft ramifications it made for quite a spotlight.

It didn’t surprise me that the Raiders folded. I mean after all it’s the Raiders. But if I’m a Denver fan I’m not getting all excited about the Broncos either. They backed into the playoffs after falling to Kansas City 7-3 and have lost their last three games. They will be fed to the Steelers next week. Tim Tebow was 6 for 22 for 60 yards and an interception. Tebow turned the ball over four times last week in a loss to Buffalo before Sunday’s debacle. Momentum isn’t exactly on their side.

Tebow will be the fourth quarterback under the current playoff format to start a playoff game after completing less than half of his passes during the regular season. The others were Mike Tomczak in 1990, Steve Beuerlein in 1991 and Scott Zolak in 1998.

In the NFC nobody can stop Drew Brees. Brees threw for 389 yards and five touchdowns in the Saints’ win over Carolina and Cam Newton. New Orleans won 13 games but still isn’t guaranteed home field through out the playoffs. San Francisco also went 13-3 and earned the second seed by virtue of a better conference record.

If there’s anybody on par with Brees, it’s Aaron Rodgers. Or is it Matt Flynn? Rodgers rested Sunday to get ready for the playoffs so Flynn got the nod. All he did was set franchise records with 480 yards passing and six touchdowns.

It’s an upset if anybody from the NFC other than the Saints or Packers is playing in the Super Bowl. One team we know it won’t be – the Dallas Cowboys…again.